February 2025
On this week's episode of THE FINANCIAL COMMUTE, we learn about host Chris Galeski's background in professional golf and how he made the switch to wealth management. Chief Operating Officer and Chief Marketing Officer Stacey McKinnon takes over as our guest host and interviewer.
Here are some key takeaways from their discussion:
Watch previous episodes here:
Ep. 123 The Hidden Forces Driving Interest Rates & Market Volatility
Ep. 122 Beyond the Hype: The Real Value of Bitcoin According to Nik Bhatia
Welcome to another episode of THE FINANCIAL COMMUTE. This week, I am taking over as host of THE FINANCIAL COMMUTE, because today we're going to learn about Chris Galeski, your fearless regular host of the episodes, and a little bit more about his history and experience in not financial services.
So not everybody knows this. But, Chris, you started your professional career as a professional golfer, which is not the same as finance. And so I'm really excited for people to hear a little bit more about that and how I think you would say that there's a lot of lessons you learned along the way that helped you to be successful in this profession.
Thank you. Stacy. It's interesting. It's weird being on this side of the table. But, you know, my journey into becoming a financial advisor, it went by way of professional golf first. And when I look at my life, I was so lucky.
I mean, if you are a golfer or golf fan, I sort of won the golf lottery by the family that I was born into.
My dad ran the tour department for Callaway Golf Worldwide, and my grandfather was a head golf professional at a country club back east in Connecticut for 36 years. We played golf before we opened Christmas presents.
It's like you were born into it.
It feels like that in a way. I mean, I love golf. It's definitely a part of my life. It was the sport that I probably was not the best at, but it was the one that was so difficult to master that I felt like I just wanted to pour everything into it. And I was lucky I had access to some of the best golf equipment golf courses, teachers, and coaches.
And so that really helped me have such a great golf career. I'm now a financial advisor. You know, I joke because I was a good player, not a great player. But there's still a lot of takeaways from from that journey that I think brings me here today.
Well, so I read a statistic on this, and one out of every 16,000 high school students becomes a professional golfer. So you had to be somewhat great, right. Like what was that transition like when you graduated high school, you had options in front of you.
How did you make the decision to go down this road?
I never won a lot of tournaments as a young player. But I was dangerous enough on a golf course that people didn't necessarily want to go to head to head with me towards the end, because I had something in me that, you know, could produce really good results or make it difficult to compete with.
And I was lucky that my senior year of high school, I had shot a few low enough scores to where then all of a sudden colleges were interested in me and saying, hey, this this guy has potential. Given the right training and circumstances, maybe he can really build out to be, you know, a great player. And I was lucky to, you know, go to San Diego State, which was close to home, still have access to Callaway Golf and everything that was there.
And, drop off my laundry on Thursday so I didn't have to do it.
So you got to keep the good, but then, you know, have conveniences for the things you didn't want to do.
Right? And, you know, San Diego State at the time, we had a top ten men's golf team in the country and a good business school. And, I got to meet a lot of great people and compete and really learn. But again, I still wasn't the best player on the team. It sort of was continued with like, oh, this person puts up really low scores but can't string 3 to 4 rounds together consecutively.
But again, like there's potential there. I mean, I can compete in any given day and beat just about anybody. But over the course of 3 or 4 days I might have struggled a little bit more.
So one thing that I've, acknowledged in working with you so much is that you're incredibly disciplined. You have a drive and a tenacity, and you're like, if there's something that I don't know, I'm going to figure it out. If there's something that I need to dig deeper into, I'm going to go and do that thing. Like, would you say discipline and tenacity or some of, like characteristics that you developed playing golf, or is there anything else that you would share has really translated for you from that professional career to this one?
Yeah, I was very talented in my ability to where I could hit a golf ball a long ways. I could, you know, make a lot of birdies and have the potential to shoot low scores. But I had some issues in my in my game or some, you know, things that I needed to improve. And I always had the mentality.
And I was lucky that I grew up in Southern California. If the sun was out, I was going to be out playing or practicing. And so that meant, you know, I was up very early in the morning and I was playing and hitting balls and working on things, and I had a lot of great coaches that said, okay, listen, here's how you look back in.
You reflect on your strengths and weaknesses for the day, and here's how you should use the rest of the afternoon to work on those strengths and weaknesses to become better going forward. And, you know, my dad said to me very early on, like, there's no pictures on the scorecard and today could be the start of something new. And who knows, it could be the best day of your life.
And I really adopted that mentality. Like, I wake up every day is like a new opportunity to learn and grow. And I feel like that's my biggest, takeaway besides the drive to try to become better. Look at your weaknesses, and acknowledge your strengths.
You do have a natural optimism just even around the office. I feel like when you walk by, people are like, oh, I'm in a better mood now. Chris just walked by, which is a good trait to have.
What do you think? In, in terms of, like, that discipline, to even acknowledge your weaknesses and then focus on your strengths in your role here at Morton.
And it's not just your role as a financial advisor. It's also your role in leadership. So you were coached for many years and now you are the coach. Like, tell me about what that is like and maybe any parallels that you've taken from golf.
Well, I was lucky again because I was a really good player and I grew up at a country club. I could be hitting golf balls in the driving range, and there could be a very successful CEO or business person, man or woman, that wanted to get better at golf. And at a very young age of 12, 13, I was giving advice and telling people what to do.
But you realize very early on that some people have physical, things that prevent them from doing things a certain way, confidence, understanding about it. And so your job as a coach is to really help guide them, but also inspire them that they're doing the right things and ignore the noise, because there's a lot of noise when it comes to golf advice or life advice, especially as it relates to, you know, financial planning.
So it's really understanding, like, hey, I have the confidence that I'm doing the right things and making the right decisions. So that way tomorrow I'm going to be better. It's the same thing for life and inspiring our team or giving advice to clients. From my perspective.
Okay, so I was reading a really interesting statistic that said that in professional golf, only 1% of professional golfers really make it long term in their career. You were able to make it seven years, right, as a professional, and then you had to make this big life transition. Do you mind sharing just how you made that decision and what that transition was like for you?
Yeah, look, it was hard, because my whole dream in life was to be the best player that I possibly could and compete and win on the PGA tour. And clearly, I woke up one day and said, hey, maybe I can't do it. So part of me felt a little bit like a failure. And then you have to relook at your life and it's like, okay, what can I do?
I'm 29 years old and never had a job, was essentially a professional gambler for living. Like that's essentially what I did.
What golf is.
Right. I mean, I put up money, I paid an entry fee, and I competed against hundreds of other guys that did the same thing. And the money that we played for was the money that we put down. Right.
And so, I was in Columbus, Ohio, and I said to myself, I don't think I'm going to make it.
When I look out the next ten years of my life, I'm not so sure that this is what I want my life to be. And I would love to wake up and, you know, be able to enjoy weekends and holidays and be there for barbecues and weddings and, you know, people having kids or whatever it may be.
So, I said, what am I going to do with my life? Well, I'm really good at talking. I'm interested in money and finance and making good decisions around money. And most of the people that you met, you know, playing golf, most of the sponsors worked in this business, whether it's on the investment side or they were financial advisors and sort of felt like if, hey, if they can do it, I can do it.
And if I could really help people for a living, I'd be fulfilled. So it was August of 2009. I call my dad. I said, I'm going to, I'm going to walk away from golf and I'm going to get a job in finance. And he says, you must be a moron. We are in the middle of like one of the biggest financial crisis we've ever been.
You not know what the news is? You've never had a job. Who's going to hire you? And I was like, okay, well, I've got a long drive from Columbus. Orange accepted to Los Angeles, like, here we go. And that's sort of that, that transition. And so I came to Los Angeles and I looked through my thousands of business cards and I started calling and emailing everybody I knew looking for opportunities.
And it took about three months, and I got an opportunity at Morgan Stanley and about $750 for my dad to buy three shirts and three suits, and I paid him back with my first paycheck. They said they were going to pay me $45,000 a year, and I thought I was going to be rich, like 45,000. Seemed like so much money.
It wasn't. But, that was sort of the start of it, sort of blind luck, I guess.
So this journey from leaving your last tournament to turning round and starting a brand new profession, I mean, was that, like, unnerving to you? Were you just confident you were just like, this is a new road ahead, so I'm going to take it. What was that like for you?
At at the early onset, I was overly confident. Okay? I felt like I knew so many different people from past lives. And then I just figured, like, if they can be successful, they put their shoes on just like me. I've got this drive and this tenacity and this commitment towards success that I can be successful. And then you wake up and all of a sudden, when I was playing golf, no matter where, where I went, like I was somebody that was important, people looked up to me.
They wanted my advice and insight and guidance. And now you're working in the financial advisory business and you're trying to tell people what you do, and you don't really have a track record. You don't really have clients. Nobody really wants to talk to you. It was a gut check and it was a real confidence like, wow, maybe, maybe this wasn't the right move.
And so it took a while to kind of build that confidence and that skill set like that. I could be successful doing this. It was not an easy transition, although my overconfidence helped me through it. But I had a great team that supported me and helped give me guidance, even though it was extremely challenging. Not only from seeing success and seeing small wins, because I didn't see anything for a couple of years to all of a sudden believing in yourself again, which I feel like is the most important thing.
To be successful in life, you have to believe in yourself that you can do it.
Yeah, and you probably had to like, focus on that belief when you were playing golf. And then now to translate that into a finance and the business world. I mean, I can imagine that that was really helpful, even, I'm sure in golf just that failures are just one like stepping stone to then creating success in the future. That probably translated the same.
Well, yeah. I mean, that's one of my biggest takeaways, is that, like, I failed way more at golf than I succeeded, but you still have to wake up and tomorrow could be the start of something new. You could string it together, something might click. And you know, if I played in a thousand events and won three times, like I look back in my career and like I was successful, I won.
Yeah. And I was able to kind of persevere and make it through. But you learn so much more in life through your failures than you do your successes. And so, like, I really embrace the mistakes and the failures and the challenges, because even if I try to hit the best golf that I possibly can and I do, that doesn't mean it's going to be the result that I anticipated.
So many other things that can happen, like I hit a shot once, I hit a bird in the middle of the air, right. And so like, they're just things that happen in life and you have to roll up your sleeves and say, okay, I got to find it and hit it again and move forward.
If you were to put yourself back in those shoes and let's say you're an athlete and you're transitioning to a different career, what advice would you give the 29 year old self?
It is not going to be easy, but it's going to be extremely rewarding. And if you just take that same drive, skill set, tenacity, all of those things that you did to be successful in your sport and you apply that to the curiosity and the knowledge and the journey going forward. Your dreams are going to come true. It might not be as fast as you may like, but you have to embrace the challenges and the failures and people are going to invest in you.
And you have to be willing to put in the hard work and learn. But it's not going to be easy. Like for me, people always ask me, okay, you're playing golf for a living. What's your backup plan if it doesn't work out? I couldn't operate that way. I don't feel like I can give it 100% and be successful knowing that I've got something else that I'm working on on the side.
So I think it's okay not to have a backup plan as long as you're willing to commit to yourself and the people that are there giving you that next opportunity. Like, I'm going to put everything that I did in this prior profession into this new one, and that's going to lead to success long term.
I love that you brought up not having a backup plan. It's almost back to what you said earlier of believing in yourself or trusting yourself that even if this doesn't work out, you trust yourself that you're going to figure it out and the next journey is going to be amazing, too. Yeah, well, now you've been at Morton for a long time.
You're partner here at Morton, you've established yourself. We always talk about how this is the place that we want to be in. Definitely. Right. It's a very, very, very wonderful place to work. What lessons have you learned here that you'd want to share in terms of what created success for you and what you're most proud of?
I feel so lucky to not only be part of a great team, but to work together with so many individuals and I like to think that I'm a partner and in this institution, but really partnering with our teammates to make a difference in people's lives, like to me, I just feel really lucky. But I got here because of all of those trials and tribulations and determination that that was set forth.
And so, you know, when I look at the impact that we're trying to make, like we're trying to do things differently, we're not just trying to do the same thing as everybody else. And so there's a little bit of creativity, nuance, uncharted territory that's fun. And inspiring. And I think our team embraces that. And so the biggest takeaway for me is like, listen, it's okay to try.
It's okay to fail. We're going to learn and we're going to make a difference in people's lives. And to me, that's something I'm most proud of. Like, we just have that innate curiosity, like, I wonder if we can do it this way.
I love that I feel like curiosity is one of the skills that people don't always talk about, but it seems to be the skill that defines success more than most I've actually seen. I mean, you definitely can have discipline and perseverance and these other things, but as soon as you're curious and you ask more questions about the world, you just learn more, right?
And I think that we are very learning culture around here and have a team that's inspired to do that.
We really are. And, you know, I think partly because of your project management work and sort of your background, like you're helping teach our team and what it means to, okay, what's the result that we're trying to have for the advice that we're trying to give with that client? Let's work backwards on all the steps that need to happen.
That's how we prepared for golf tournament. Yeah. If I showed up at a golf course that I've never seen before and I didn't have time to play a practice round, I would go walk it backwards and I'd look at the green and say, okay, here's the ending point. Let's assume the pins over here. I want to come in from that angle.
So then I need to hit that tee shot and you would write down all those notes. So the next day you knew how to compete and play on a course you've never seen before, just by starting backwards and working through all the steps to get there. You help us and it's fun working with you. From that perspective.
I appreciate that. I oftentimes think about what it was like to be a wedding planner, which is what I did before this, and how even though I'm not coordinating like caterers and photographers anymore, I am coordinating lots of different teams to work together to accomplish a common goal, and it's pretty incredible when you look back on past careers and think about all the little things you learned that have led to you being better where you are today, I oftentimes like to reflect on that and just have gratitude for where I came from.
Yeah, I agree, it's so much fun. And like we're we're doing a lot of fun things, but we are who we are because of our experiences. And and professions. And I think being able to take that uniqueness helps us kind of drive a different path and experience for our clients.
I'm gonna totally agree. All right. One last golf question for you. What was your favorite course that you ever played on?
So there's, a golf course up in Northern California next to Pebble Beach. It's called Cypress Point. It is just an amazing walk-in experience. It was designed by the same guy that designed Augusta National. His name is Alister Mackenzie. And what's cool about it is you know there's 18 holes on the golf course and there's three different experiences you get by playing this golf course.
You go from like coastal to in the middle of these trees. So you're like in a forest back to coastal along the ocean and then back up into like this trees where you finish. And it's just it's one of the most amazing walks in life. And look, it's an exclusive golf course to be able to play. It's not expensive to be a member, but you have to sort of get the invite.
It's very hard to get the invite to play, but if you're lucky enough to do it, you feel like you're the only ones out there. And so you're going on this journey and you're not feeling like, you know, you're holding anybody up or you're waiting on anyone, but you get to kind of experience. It's just an incredible walk and it's challenging and fun.
And I don't know, I just... I love it.
It seems like you've just added something to a lot of listeners, bucket list included with that one, that description you just had, it sounds like
serene and enjoyable and fun and I think a whole new experience.
Yeah. They also have a rule on the first tee, hit till You're happy, which most other golf course is done. It's like you hit it and then you move on and go. But they know that the rest of the day is going to be so challenging that you better start with a smile on your face. So there were many times where I hit 2 or 3 shots off the first tee.
Well, thank you for coming on your own podcast and telling us about you and your life and your history. And I'm very grateful for your golf profession because it's led you to be here with us today.
Me too. Thank you. I wouldn't be where I am without those prior experiences. And, you know, it's just it's so much fun.
